Teen Age

Our preteen years, ages nine to 13, can present some of the most difficult times in our young lives, a period of tremendous physical and emotional change. We're eager to leave the "kid" stage, yet we're uncertain about what adolescence will bring; we start hearing the familiar refrain "wait until you're older" far too often. Chicken Soup for the Preteen Soul is a companion guide for these transitional years.

Southern Illinois is a place of mixed emotions as the American Civil War erupts. For the Creightons, the war lures two sons to the Union army and one to the Confederacy, leaving 10-year-old Jethro to care for the family farm. As the war rages, Jethro does whatever he can to learn about the fates of his brothers, while the Creighton family faces its own danger. Some townspeople can’t forgive the Creightons for having a rebel son-and they’re willing to use violence to make their feelings known. In a state torn by conflicting loyalties, Jethro is forced to grow up quickly to preserve his family and their home.

The Faerie Race has proven more grueling and deadly than Jacqueline thought possible. With one trial down and two to go, it seems the reality show's producers will stop at nothing to get their ratings - even murder. It will take all of Jacq's cunning to get through the next trial unscathed, but all she can think about is her discovery that her sister is alive. Too bad her search for answers has only left her with more questions, and more enemies.

Rejected by all, he must learn to master the darkness within if he is to stop Mal’goroth from destroying humanity. Alone, he battles to control the malevolent magic that has consumed him as he searches for some way to turn his destructive new powers against the Dark Gods themselves. To win, he must somehow transform his own damnation into mankind’s salvation.

In the early morning of October 18, 1986, Cherie Wier’s life collapses when her teenage son takes the life of her beloved husband. For years, Cherie grapples with events preceding and following the crime, struggling to overcome the consuming grief she suffers from her loss and the difficulty she faces as she attempts to forgive her son. The courtroom accounts of gruesome details and the shocking testimonies from experts only add to Cherie’s yearning to make sense of the crime. She is tormented, wanting to know why the tragedy happened, and if there was anything she could have done.

A disabled teen, an empathetic dragon, and a bond that will save the world. Sixteen-year-old Amel arrived at Dragon School just like everyone else - with a dream to ride dragons and join the Dominion Dragon Riders. But Amel has a crippled leg, and Dragon School training is grueling. Before she can even become an initiate, she must complete her first flight on a dragon. Can Amel survive First Flight and become a Dragon School initiate, or will her dreams dash on the rocks below?

Reluctant debutante Sawyer Taft joined Southern high society for one reason and one reason alone: to identify and locate her biological father. But the answers Sawyer found during her debutante year only left her with more questions and one potentially life-ruining secret. When her cousin Lily ropes her into pledging a mysterious, elite all-female secret society called the White Gloves, Sawyer soon discovers that someone in the group's ranks may have the answers she's looking for. No one is quite who they seem to be in this sequel to Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ Little White Lies.

If there's one thing dragons fear, it's a kraken. Even lowly hull-scrubber Zee Tarrow knows that. Like everyone on the island kingdom of Tosh, he grew up frightened by fables and horrible tales of the great beasts of the deep. It seems an odd thing to impress upon the children of the realm, because–luckily for the dragons and their riders–no one has seen a kraken in a thousand years.

Ayrion’s tribe has until the Harvest Moon to meet the Guild’s price. If the payment isn’t made, Hurricane’s territory will be seized, and its members left to starve. The stakes have never been higher. Once again, Ayrion finds himself in the precarious position of taking on the role of savior. Only this time, it’s not just his life that hangs in the balance, but the lives of all the children he protects. Desperation can lead people to attempt the impossible, but Ayrion has truly tipped the scales on this one.

Gray Lexly, son of a candlemaker, wants to escape his life of old-world technologies and study at the prestigious Astra Academy, a school for arcanists—those who can wield magic. But Gray has a major problem. Every night, as he sleeps, he's visited by monsters. When they injure Gray in his dreams, he wakes with the same wounds in real life . . . On the night Gray might finally die in his nightmares, he is saved by the kind and mysterious Professor Helmith, a powerful arcanist. She offers to protect Gray and invites him to attend Astra Academy.

This book isn't just some dry set of instructions on dealing with the mental health "problemas" we all go through. No way. It's like that cool, understanding friend who's always there for you, ready to help you kick your fears to the curb and cruise through your teen years with confidence and a smile on your face.

LeadWell focuses on 16 of the most sought-after qualities in leaders but emphasizing them for 14- to 23-year-olds. The audiobook can be used as a stand-alone resource for schools and student groups, but it complements the LeadWell training curriculum provided by LeadYoung Training Systems.

A moving coming-of-age story set in the 1900s, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn follows the lives of 11-year-old Francie Nolan, her younger brother Neely, and their parents, Irish immigrants who have settled in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Johnny Nolan is as loving and fanciful as they come, but he is also often drunk and out of work, unable to find his place in the land of opportunity.

Karr is a teenage boy like many others in the galaxy. He goes to school, helps his parents with the family business, likes speeders and droids. But Karr also has a secret: When he touches certain objects, he gets searing headaches and blacks out. And along with the pain sometimes come visions of people he doesn't know and places he's never been. Karr's parents worry that he's sick; his grandmother is convinced the visions come from the Force. But it's been years since anyone has heard from the last of the Jedi - Luke Skywalker. Are there any Jedi left to guide Karr?

Riley is lithe and fast, her tongue every bit as sharp as her sword. She's a new-age knight pledged to keep her King and countrymen safe. Riley's hearing rumors about a dark mage in the north. He's amassing a ruthless army and practicing twisted magic. His evil past intertwines with Riley's kingdom...and he's coming to claim it. With the kingdom at stake, Riley embarks on a collision course with this mage...and with her own mortality. Will Riley's fighting prowess prove enough to vanquish the dark mage and his legion?

Just as Ayrion’s priorities are involuntarily split between the Elondrian Lancers and his tribe, Noph - the notably cunning chief of Sandstorm - calls for a secret meeting between himself and Hurricane. The outcome of that meeting forces Ayrion, Reevie, and Sapphire to make a decision that will not only affect their role within the tribes but will test the true strength of their friendship.

Realm of Dragons (Age of the Sorcerers—Book One) tells the story of the epic coming of age of one very special 16-year-old boy, a blacksmith’s son from a poor family who is offered no chance of proving his fighting skills and breaking into the ranks of the nobles. Yet he holds a power he cannot deny, and a fate he must follow.

Ed Kennedy is an underage cabdriver without much of a future. He's pathetic at playing cards, hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey, and utterly devoted to his coffee-drinking dog, the Doorman. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence, until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery.

Told from June's point of view - and set between the shattering events of The Midnight Blade and The Skeleton Road - June's Wild Flight brings new characters, high-stakes action, and stunning revelations in an adventure that could only be June's. An essential Last Kids story that readers won't want to miss!

Cameron Post feels a mix of guilt and relief when her parents die in a car accident. Their deaths mean they will never learn the truth she eventually comes to - that she's gay. Orphaned, Cameron comes to live with her old-fashioned grandmother and ultraconservative aunt Ruth. When she’s eventually outed, her aunt sends her to God’s Promise, a religious conversion camp that is supposed to “cure” her homosexuality. At the camp, Cameron comes face to face with the cost of denying her true identity.